Knowledge of cervical cancer and uptake of screening among female students from selected Universities in Lusaka

Abstract

Cervical cancer though preventable is a serious public health problem. Cervical cancer can be treated and detected while it is early invasive or pre-invasive significantly improves the probability of curing the disease. WHO reported that cervical cancer is the second most common cause of female cancer globally. There are approximately 500,000 new cases that are identified each year and 250,000 women die of cervical cancer each year. Students in tertiary institutions usually have a high risk of contracting STDs as compared to the general public because of the high sexual behavior in such institutions and they underestimate their risk of contracting various STDs, HPV being one of them. One study found that as many as 60% of college-age women had some form of HPV, which is causally linked to cervical cancer. The aim of this study therefore, was to determine the knowledge of cervical cancer in influencing uptake of cervical cancer screening among female students from selected Universities in Lusaka The study was a quantitative cross-sectional study of full-time female students in these Universities conducted between July 2016 and January 2017. Data was analysed using Stata 13 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA). The primary outcome was knowledge about cervical cancer, which adopted a validated cervical Cancer Awareness Measures (CAMs) tool and secondary outcome variable was uptake of Cervical cancer screening. Variables were first removed if the likelihood p-value was greater than 0.2, the final predictor variables in the model were those with p<0.05. The uptake of cervical cancer screening was analysed in a similar way. The study found that the majority of the students had never heard of HPV, and over 90% of them had heard of Cervical cancer. However, regarding the level of knowledge of Cervical cancer, the majority of the students had low knowledge levels with only 9% having high knowledge levels. This study found that only 13% of the students had screened for cervical cancer. Residing within School campus and having a health facility within School campus had a positive significant association to the level of knowledge. Age of sexual debut, knowing someone with cervical cancer and level of knowledge were significant positive predictors of uptake of cervical cancer Students were aware of cervical cancer, however, their level of knowledge regarding risk factors and preventive measures is very low. This indicated that awareness messages on cervical cancer and its prevention to the Public are not adequate in these institutions, this is a gap that needs to be highlighted because a large number of University female students are sexually active and henceforth a key population to focus on regarding cervical cancer prevention. Therefore, there is need to intensify Information, Education and Communication (IEC) on cancer of the cervix and its prevention in an effort to curb this disease vi